Back to: ENGLISH LANGUAGE SS1
Welcome to class!
In today’s class, we will be talking about the present and past participle, etc. Enjoy the class!
Essay writing: Formal Letter.
Speech work: Contrasting /Ɵ/and /ᵭ/ \ Ɵ\ and/t/ /d/ and /d/.
Structure: Participle-Present and Past
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Letter writing: formal letter
Letter writing is the art of communicating by writing one’s request, feelings, idea, opinions and so on to someone as if the person were physically present.
Formal letter
Another name for formal letters is an official letter. They are letters we write to people in their official positions. Even when we know them personally, the rule demands that we still write them impersonal or official letters.
A formal letter can be in form of applications for admission or employment requests for casual leave by staff in offices, official queries and replies to them, letters to local government Chairmen, Commissioners or Minister of Education requesting for changes in the school system and other such topics.
Features of a formal letter
- Writer’s Address: This should be written at the top right-hand corner of the page like this:
Federal Government College
P.M.B. 1075,
Owerri,
Imo State
15th July, 2002.
- Receiver’s Address: This is written on the line following the date on the left-hand side of the page. Other names for the receiver are:
(i) the recipient
(ii) The addressee e.g.
The Director,
Adebisi Associated Enterprises,
P.M.B. 10016,
Akure.
- Salutation: The salutation is the greeting which comes after the receiver’s address: Dear Sir, or Dear Madam.
There are some people who are greeted in special ways like this:
| The Governor of a state | Your Excellency |
| An Ambassador
|
Your Excellency |
| A traditional ruler | Your Highness/Your Majesty |
| A pastor | Dear Reverend |
| A judge | Your Lordship |
- Heading or Topic or Title
This comes directly after the salutation but not on the same line. E.g. Complaints about the lack of facilities in my area.
- Body of the letter: Here, you go straight to what the question states you should do. There should be no room for exchange of pleasantries or personal matters, slangs, colloquialism, abbreviations and contracted words like won’t, I’m, You know, Yea, Whats up, US, NAFDAC are not are allowed.
- Subscript (Complimentary close)
The most correct way of ending a formal letter is Yours faithfully, at the right-hand corner of the page immediately after the letter. It’s followed by the writer’s signature and full names written under the signature:
Yours faithfully,
(Signature)
EzeChima
NOTE- Capital letter “Y” and a small letter “f” while your signature must come before your name.
Evaluation: Write a letter to the chairman of your local government complaining to him about the lack of facilities in your area.
Reading Assignment: Page 203 of Effective English.
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Speech Work: Contrasting /Ѳ/ and /ð/, /t/ and /d/
Content:
- Consonant sounds /Ѳ/ and /ð/
- Consonant sounds /t/ and /d/
/Ѳ/ voiceless Dental fricative:
This sound is purely English. It’s made by placing the tip of the tongue behind the upper front teeth. The sound has just one spelling.
‘Th’- think, thank, thin, thumb, anthem, author, path, oath, wealth, faith etc
/ð/ Voiced Dental Fricative/ð/:
The sound is made the same way the sound /Ѳ/ is produced but for the condition of the glottis. /ð/ also has one spelling.
‘Th’— than, breath, wreathe, father, those, they etc
| /Ѳ/ | /ð/ |
| Thank | Than |
| Think | This |
| Thin | The |
| Anthem | Father |
| Author | Gather |
| Path | Bathe |
/t/ Voiceless Alveolar Plosive /t/:
Due to the buildup of air, the tongue suddenly gives way and the sound /t/ is produced.
Spelling variants and word examples are:
‘T’- two, ten, tremble, extract
‘Th’-Thomas, thyme, Thames
‘Tt’-attack, attention, attend, attract, matter, better, bottle.
‘D’- smashed, slapped, kicked, pushed, passed, gnashed, misses, scooped etc.
/d/ the difference in the production of /t/ and /d/ is that /t/ is aspirated as an initial sound while/d/ is not. The glottis is in the vibrating mode when /d/ is made.
Spelling variants and word examples are:
/d/ — do, den, expand, produce, bed etc.
/dd/- daddy, muddy, sudden, paddle, ladder, middle.
Contrast
| /t/ | /d/ |
| Slapped | Wanted |
| Kicked | Expected |
| Missed | Misled |
| Ten | Den |
| Two | Do |
| Latter | Ladder |
| Battle | Paddle |
Evaluation
Write three more examples for each of the sounds taught.
Reading assignment
Page 3 and 4 of Standard Speech 10 Book of Diction in English Course.
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Structure: Participles; Present/Past
Present participle:
This is the Present Perfect Tense. The present perfect tense is derived by adding either has/have to words like written, done, spelt. ‘has’ is used for singular verb while ‘have’ is used for the plural verb.
E.g. He has done it.
They have ground the pepper.
We have the song.
Past perfect tense:
This is derived by adding ‘had’ to a word like written, done, spelt etc. Had is used for past while has/have are used for present verb e.g.
- He had done the work before I came in.
- They had ground the pepper.
- We had learnt the song before we sang it.
Evaluation
Use each of the participles in four sentences
- learnt
- flown
- sung
- rung
In our next class, we will be talking about Comprehension/ Writing Skill; Answering Summary Questions; Structure: Auxiliaries-” shall” and “should”; Essay Writing: Descriptive- The Evil Effect of Peer Pressure. We hope you enjoyed the class.
Should you have any further question, feel free to ask in the comment section below and trust us to respond as soon as possible.
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